Journal of Spine

Seung Kyoon Woo

Biography

Seung Kyoon Woo was born and raised in Seoul, South Korea and earned my PhD from Seoul National University. His thesis work was to purify and characterize a family of enzymes that cleave peptide or iso-peptide bonds conjugated to ubiquitin. In 1996, Seung Kyoon Woo came to Baltimore, Maryland to get Post Doc training at Johns Hopkins Medical School. Since then, his research interests have focused on transcriptional regulation of genes in pathophysiological conditions. Since joining the University Maryland Neurosurgery Department in 2006, his research interest has been investigating a transcriptional program that regulates expression of the SUR1-regulated non-selective cation channel (NCCa-ATP) in CNS pathological conditions.Dr.  Seung Kyoon Woo is one of the authors of Journal of Spine.

Research Interest

We have identified a non-selective cation channel (NCCa-ATP) that plays a key role in oncotic cell death following various forms of CNS injury such as stroke and spinal cord injury. Our recent research data indicate the channel is composed of at least two different subunits; one is sulfonylurea receptor 1 (SUR1) as a regulatory subunit and the other is transient receptor potential cation channel, subfamily M, member 4 (TRPM4) as a pore-forming subunit. Importantly, the channel is inactive in normal condition; whereas it becomes activated in the pathological conditions. My research goal is to elucidate activation mechanism of the channel. That includes (1) identification of cis-regulatory elements and trans-acting factors involved in transcriptional stimulation of the SUR1 and TRPM4 genes following ischemic and traumatic CNS injury, and (2) studying post-translational regulatory mechanism including physical interaction between the two subunits and trafficking to plasma membrane. So far, we have identified Sp1, hypoxia inducible factor-1 (HIF-1), NFkB, and sex determining region Y (SRY) as major transcription factors that regulate transcription of the genes in the pathological conditions.